Hynix is a big name in the memory industry, and since phones are becoming small, yet quite powerful computers, it doesn’t come as a surprise that new memory standards are making their way to flagship phones.

Hynix has confirmed that it is the first company to ship LP DDR4 memory that ended up in a commercial smartphone, as we predicted a few months back.

Hynix is shipping 8Gb LPDDR4 (Low Power Double Data Rate 4) that is used in the LG G Flex 2 phone. This phone was announced at CES 2015 back in January, but we still haven’t seen it shipping to end-customers.

The 20nm LPDDR4 memory has double the transfer rate that increased from 1600Mbps with LPDDR3 to 3200Mbps with LPDDR4. At the same time LPDDR4 needs 1.1V, which is 0.1V less than what you need with LPDDR3 at 1.2V. It's not a lot, but it matters.

We are sure that some other flagship phones that will be introduce on March 1 at the Mobile World Congress 2015 will also come with LPDDR4 support. The Snapdragon 810 does support this memory interface and not only does it it doubles the data rate throughput, it also results in less power consumption for the whole phone.

Research firm IHS predicts that 36 percent of premium smartphones might end up using LPDDR4 next year. We are sure that a lot of premium phones will end up with LPDDR4 this year, and we also hope that USB 3.0, also part of the Snapdragon 810 chip specification, will finally make its way to next-generation flagship smartphones that are coming in less than a month.

Hynix has reported a slowing down of growth in the memory chip profits as it posted its first drop in quarterly profit in two years, casting doubt on medium-term revenue growth.

SK Hynix President Kim Joon-ho told analysts that the problem was a change in product mix and a transition to more complex production technology will crimp third-quarter shipments growth for the key DRAM business. Analysts are concerned that DRAM shipments growth will be increasingly limited in the latter half of the year, given the technology migration issues, which would lead to slower top-line growth. But Hong said such concerns were overblown, as limited shipments growth would help keep supply tight and support chip prices.

Hynix posted an operating profit of $1.07 billion for the April-June period which is not to be sneezed at. But that result was 2.7 percent below the same quarter a year earlier. The other problem is the rise in the value of the won, which toll on revenue, which fell 0.2 percent compared with the previous corresponding period. The currency on average gained more than 9 percent against the dollar during the April-June quarter from a year ago.

President Kim said growth in shipments of DRAM chips, mainly used in personal computers and servers, would slow to a mid-single-digit percent rate in the third quarter, from 13 percent in the April-June period. Shipments of NAND chips, typically used in mobile devices, would slow to a high 20 percent rate from 54 percent.

He said that DRAM market trends will remain favourable due to better-than-expected demand for personal computers as well as data centre-related server demand.

"The launch of new mobile products by major companies and the development of LTE-related demand in China will likely keep demand-side conditions firm," he added.

Analysts played down concerns of a supply glut arising from the company's plans for capital investment in the second half of 2015, and expected short-term earnings to remain firm.

Exceleram has updated its memory lineup with a brand new X Series of memory modules and kits that will be using Hynix CFR chips.

The lineup includes single modules and kits ranging from 1333MHz to 1866MHz as single 2 or 4GB modules and 8GB (2x4GB) kits. Some of them come without heatsink and some come with Black or White Sark heatsinks.

The tear down people at Ifixit have been looking under the bonnet of Amazon.com Kindle Fire tablet and discovered that it is very similar to the playbook.

The tablet uses components from Texas Instruments, Samsung, LG and Hynix Semiconductor and is laid out in a way which would make it a doddle to fix. Miroslav Djuric, director of technical communication at iFixit said that the main application processor is a Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 processor.

Samsung supplied the 8GB flash memory chip, while Hynix made a DDR2 RAM component for the device. The Kindle Fire's display was made by LG. "The fact it looks similar to the BlackBerry PlayBook from Research in Motion, is more due to the fact it has similar components motherboard, battery, display," Djuric said.

The PlayBook also uses the TI OMAP 4430 processor. Inside it has a completely different layout, smaller battery, and different orientations for its components.

The dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell on earth rumour that the shipmaker Hyundai Heavy Industries is about to make a bid for the giant memory chip maker Hynix Semiconductor.

A senior insider from a Hynix creditor said Hyundai Heavy is mulling over submitting a letter of intent (LOI) for the company. Nine creditors are involved in the sale including Korea Finance Corp. (KoFC), Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), Shinhan Bank and Woori Bank with the deadline for presenting an interest by July 8.

According to the local press, HHI has decided to make a sole bid for the chip maker as part of the former’s strategy of regaining the family conglomerate. Hynix was once part of Hyundai Electronics.

Textile-focused Hyosung was apparently interested but dropped its bid for Hynix.